FINANCING REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH EUROPEAN FUNDS. A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS IN ROMANIA (2007-2013)

The paper aims at creating an area of understanding regional development in Romania in the broader context of community regional development, given the impact that the implementation of this policy has on the reduction of economic and social disparities between regions in the case of Romania. The paper is structured on three chapters: firstly it tackles the need for a regional development policy in Romania taking into account the EU adherence goal (after 1990) and the disparities existing between regions across Romania. Secondly, we present the European funding instruments and mechanisms of regional development in Romania, mainly the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Regional Operational Program (ROP). Thirdly, we analyze the impact of financing regional development policy in terms of reducing economic disparities between the Romanian regions for the period 2007-2013 and highlighting the importance and effects of regional development financing. To this aim, we analyzed the evolution of the following indicators with an impact on regional development: the GDP per capita evolution, the evolution of foreign investments, the unemployment rate and evolution of the number of small and medium enterprises. The end is reserved for the conclusions of the research. When conducting this paper, the main research instruments used were the study and analysis of documents, analysis of official reports and the literature on regional development as well as the interpretation and analysis of statistical data provided by the National Institute of Statistics of Romania.